How Significant were the Normandy landings in Defeating Germany in World War Two?

. Using source A and your own knowledge explain why the D-day was such an important event of World War two? D-Day was such an important event of World War Two for numerous amounts of reasons. The term 'D-Day' actually means 'The Day'. As said by Major Elson, it is the day where "everyone does something". Major Elson fought on the Italian front, which is demonstrated on the map. D-Day was to be June 1944 minutes between night turning to morning on the 6th. The Germans had occupied France and France needed Britain, Canada and America to come together to regain the French territory for them. As well as this, Russia was fighting of Germany in the East and needed the Allies to relieve pressure. D-Day was a very important part into ending the war but other factors include the Battle of the Atlantic, the fighting in North Africa and the Battle of Britain. Arriving at Normandy using the Mulberry harbours, the Allies captured all of the five designated beaches (Omaha, Juno, Gold, Sword and Utah) despite strong German coastal defences. This is mainly due to the opposing armies having no idea to where the Allied forces would be landing because no place in France were called those names. The map shows where the troops entered France and this also clearly enforces the sheer scale of the invasion and its importance into keeping it top secret. Meanwhile, parachutists were flown in nearly

  • Word count: 6718
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Why did hitler bomb british cities?

The Blitz: 'Why did Hitler bomb British cities?' Part way through the Second World War Hitler occupied nearly all of Europe, including France. He decided to take Britain next. His first plan failed. So he resorted to the blitz. The blitz was the constant bombing of major cities in Britain, along with other targets such as food and railways. But this wasn't Hitler's ideal way to take Britain. But to understand why this and everything else previously occurred, we need to go back to the end of the First World War, when the allied countries, Italy, America, France, Britain and Belgium put together the treaty of Versailles. This treaty blamed Germany for the war, and made them pay compensation to the allied countries for the cost and damages expenses of the war. Their army was reduced to 100,000 men and 10% of their land was taken away. Soon after the end of the war came the Wall Street crash, this came as a result of the treaty of Versailles. The German people were in a mess, as was their country. They were looking for a strong leader who felt the same way as they did, and would promise them improvement. Hitler fitted the bill. In 1933 Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, and from then on he worked solely for war. He even went behind the backs of the allies to do so. He wanted to regain the land that had been taken from them, and he wanted to take extra to make room for

  • Word count: 6651
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Soviet State

The Soviet State under Stalin Stalin's Role in the Soviet State The crisis of modernisation: from indirect to direct mobilisation * The emergence of the Stalinist machine opened up new approaches to the underlying problem of backwardness. By the late 1920s a very different situation made available to the government a third strategy - to tackle the peasantry head on and take what was necessary by force as it had during the period of War Communism. The precondition of this was the strengthened ruling group and a powerful and ruthless leadership. * Strategies of direct mobilisation appeared once more on the Party's agenda, with Stalin as their main sponsor. * By 1929 the Stalinist machine provided the spine of such as system. And the emergence of Stalin as undisputed leader gave the system a unity and decisiveness it lacked during the power struggle. Meanwhile the other organs of the coercive machinery were the army and police which had a decade of relative stability to grow their traditions. * As leader of such a group, Stalin was in a position to pursue the twin goals of industrial growth and military power more ruthlessly than any other Russian ruler. During the 1930s he showed that he possessed both the will and ability to do so. Introduction of Collectivisation and Industrialisation (Five Year Plans) A Social Revolution * In 1929 the Soviet Government launched a

  • Word count: 6554
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Journalism - Two generations of the journalists - Soviet and the post-Soviet - make journalism in contemporary Russia.

Journalism Two generations of the journalists - Soviet and the post-Soviet - make journalism in contemporary Russia. The difference is in how the young generation quite critically estimates the Soviet experience and thinks that until the crucial reforms of liberalisation journalism was a completely different profession. The basic distinction between the old and the new journalism, according to young generation lies in the approach toward information, particularly what information goes to society and how - understood as the quality of informing society. In the statement by the former editor-in-chief of the elite magazine Itogy of the company "Media MOST", Sergei Parkhomenko: ... the journalism, in my view, till 1990 worked without sources. The primary source was the author's brains. On rare occasions there was a certain simulation of the source somehow: "a reader's letter", TASS or something like that. But the primary content of the text it was the author's thoughts. Till the end of 1990 in the domestic journalism there was not a problem of speed... There were not perceptions of the type "I am first, you are second"... In the absence of a competition and the perception about that what information proceeds from source, a certain race had abstract, absolutely unclear for a reader and consumer of this information character. I consider that till that moment while categories of

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Research on the major Civil rights events between 1963 to 1968

Birmingham: Civil Rights March, 1963 Birmingham held a key role in the movement because of a number of reasons: whether it was through the activities of Bull Connor or the bombed church which killed four school girls, or the activity of the Ku Klux Klan which also had a stronghold in the Alabama capital which would have clashed with the strong in number black population. In 1963 Martin Luther King organised a civil rights march in Birmingham, Alabama. Six years after the Montgomery decision, this city had still not been desegregated (desegregation of buses in Alabama). Its police force was notoriously racist. It had links to the Ku Klux Klan. The aim of the march was to turn media attention on Birmingham to expose its policies to national attention. King knew that, with civil rights now a national issue, the American and international media would cover the march in detail. The Police Chief, Bull Connor obliged. In the full glare of media publicity, police and fire officers turned dogs and fire hoses on the peaceful protesters. The police arrested over 1,000 protesters; including King himself and many were put in jail. Critics accused King of provoking the violence by staging the march. King stipulated to this in a statement as he comments on his tactics, as he mentions that they were “forcing our oppressor to commit his brutality openly- in the light of day- with the rest

  • Word count: 6401
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Compare the characters and beliefs of Lenin and Stalin.

HISTORY COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT A: : Compare the characters and beliefs of Lenin and Stalin. Both Lenin and Stalin had similar characters, they were very ambitious in terms of politician as they always aimed to achive more and more, they would do everything what´s in their power to be much more powerful than they were already, this power would give them pore strengh within their posts. This ambition could be determined. Along their lives they had always someone hanging around them to take advantage of any possible opportunity to get nearer and nearer of becoming their most dilligent and efficient workers. Lenin and Stalin had colleagues and followers rather than friends. A clear example which justifies this fact is that Stalin itself was always beside Lenin in order to become his successor. We can argue that both of them gave entirely to politics no matter for what they were fighting for, if it was beneficial or not to Russia, but at the same time it is to say that if someone who suggested their capability or qualities as a leader they would have serious problems. Overall they were both very humourless. Evidence which proves my idea is that almost everyone did whay ever they wanted them to do, their supporters were committed to do what both Lenin and Stalin told them to do, if they didn´t obey their orders they could be involved in serious problems with them. Not only they

  • Word count: 6398
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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The role of Saddam Hussain in serving the aims of America in the Middle East.

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem The role of Saddam Hussain in serving the aims of America in the Middle East In order to appreciate the role of Saddam Hussain in serving the American aims in the Middle East, it is imperative to outline the international struggle over that particular region and specifically over the Gulf region during the second half of this century. Despite the fact that the international struggle over the Gulf is part of the struggle over the whole region, it is however important to lend it special attention due to the extreme importance that this particular region enjoys vis-a-vis those countries who are seeking to exploit the Islamic world, due to what its lands contain in terms of huge reserves of oil that are practically unmatchable up until now. Despite the fact that as a substance, oil has been used by man for thousands of years, its importance however did not come to light until this century. The means of life in all its various aspects, be it military or civilian, have increasingly become more and more dependent on this commodity. It would be also right to say that no country in the world today could do away with oil for one single moment, and the more advanced and industrialised the country, the greater its dependence on this commodity and the more vital to its progress it becomes. Oil has become the main source of energy in the whole world and an

  • Word count: 6293
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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Rationality, Educated Opinion and Peace

Teong Yi Heong U021202J ISM Report Dr. Alan Chong 31 March 2004 Rationality, Educated Opinion and Peace The belief in progress Abstract: This paper addresses the relevance of interwar thought to the building of peace through examining the ideas of three important writers of the period: Edward Hallett Carr, Norman Angell and Alfred Zimmern. The role of public opinion was under much query in the politics of the period they wrote in, and crucial to this issue are the questions as to whether the public mind is rational and capable of reason. These writers are concerned with the influence of public opinion and believe that through educating the public mind, the possibility of peace can be increased. Drawing from their ideas, this paper thus postulates that peace is a product of rationality and there is possibility of progress through education. The birth of international relations as a separate discipline was founded against the context of the interwar years, which brought about important consequences for the subsequent development of the interwar years. The tensions prior to and the subsequent devastation of the Great War forced intellectuals of the early twentieth century to seek explanations for the causes of war and to postulate measures by which another catastrophe could be prevented. The general psyche of the people exerted an influence on the direction of

  • Word count: 6191
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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The Golden Bird

.The Golden Bird In olden times there was a king, who had behind his palace a beautiful pleasure- garden in which there was a tree that bore golden apples. When the apples were getting ripe they were counted, but on the very next morning one was missing. This was told to the king, and he ordered that a watch should be kept every night beneath the tree. The king had three sons, the eldest of whom he sent, as soon as night came on, into the garden, but when midnight came he could not keep himself from sleeping, and next morning again an apple was gone. The following night the second son had to keep watch, but it fared no better with him, as soon as twelve o'clock had struck he fell asleep, and in the morning an apple was gone. Now it came to the turn of the third son to watch, and he was quite ready, but the king had not much trust in him, and thought that he would be of less use even than his brothers, but at last he let him go. The youth lay down beneath the tree, but kept awake, and did not let sleep master him. When it struck twelve, something rustled through the air, and in the moonlight he saw a bird coming whose feathers were all shining with gold. The bird alighted on the tree, and had just plucked off an apple, when the youth shot an arrow at him. The bird flew off, but the arrow had struck his plumage, and one of his golden

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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After the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the world started realizing a new ideology.

After the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the world started realizing a new ideology. An ideology that witnessed the collapse of concepts that were taken for granted; an ideology that is faced with fear about the formation of the new world order. Before the September 11 attacks and during the post Cold war era, the world has seen no greater power than the United States. International Relations have seen the control and dominance of the United States over the world's structure. However, after the Twin Tower attacks, the world started realizing the role of other players inside the international arena, players that were preferably called as terrorists. September 11 questioned the validity of several theories that were formulated as soon as the end of the Cold War was announced, these theories were trying to predict the shape and attitude of the world as it entered a new era. It has always been known that every era in history adapts an indication that will mark it as distinctive, and therefore all of those theories were simple speculations on the nature of what could be such an indication. Theories valid, some predicted the rise of democracy and liberalism, others feared the return of barbarism and anarchy. Also, other theories predicted a clash that will divide the borders of the world according to culture, civilization, ethnicity, and most importantly

  • Word count: 5999
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: History
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